


Ryloth Campaign

by LeiasLeftBun



Series: SWR Kanan Lives AU [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Baby Hera!, Gen, Small ficlet on how they met, Somewhat younger Chopper!, because I wanted to write it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25868884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeiasLeftBun/pseuds/LeiasLeftBun
Summary: Hera finds Chopper during the Clone Wars.
Series: SWR Kanan Lives AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877149
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Ryloth Campaign

Hera opened her eyes, the dust settling around her. The loud popping of overheating electrical wiring, the flames beginning to quickly roar to life around her, and the smoke threatening to fill her lungs should have scared her. Instead, it only got her increasingly more curious. What had happened to her front yard? 

Her parents had told her to stay indoors. Do. Not. Leave. Stay right in that office until they came back to retrieve her. 

It had gotten boring- it felt like she’d been inside for months and she likely had been. They couldn’t make her stay inside _forever_ , that was no way to live. She wanted outside. She was only going to be outdoors for a couple minutes. She would be back before anyone noticed. 

It turned out, perhaps, staying indoors was the way to live. The only way to stay alive on what she barely recognized as her home planet. She hadn’t expected the ships to be back on Ryloth. 

Maybe they had never left to begin with. She had wandered right into it- the noise, the flashes- the war she had known was going on. Her parents fought in it. Dira had died as a result of it. 

She trembled a bit as she remembered the sound and the feeling of the landmine as her younger brother stumbled upon it after he’d run ahead on their walk. Her mother’s scream. What she had seen before her father picked her up and covered her eyes, her own body now covered in dirt from the blast having thrown her. 

The burning ship now in her line of sight reminded her of that day. It wasn’t a mine this time. It was a crash. Her father said that the ships of rebels would get shot down by the people invading their planet on occasion. That this is what happened when bad people tried to control others. 

She heard an odd noise from the flames. It sounded almost like some sort of talking. Nonsensical, but panicked enough she knew whoever it was needed help. She climbed up on the rapidly warming metal and brushed the dirt from the transparisteel of the canopy. 

She smacked her palm against the canopy. "Hey! Hey! Wake up! Wake-" She stopped when she saw the blood slowly dripping from the helmet. The way their neck was bent. The way the human’s eyes were open, unblinking. 

She seized up and started to cry, not knowing how to respond. Her lekku trembled slightly. 

_I never want to crash. I never want to crash._

The thought of her own body one day being mangled in a ship twisted her insides. Someone would find her bloodied and dead. Someone would have to live with the sight of her body for the rest of their lives. She made a decision. 

_When I become a pilot, I will never, ever crash._

She was snapped out of her worries by the increasing heat and more loud chitters. Someone was still in need of help. She could still help. "Hello?" 

_**How stupid can a small organic be?! Get me out of here! This ship is on fire and my pilot is dead!** _

"I don’t understand binary very well, but I know you want help. What do I need to do?" She looked around to first locate who was making the noise. An old droid, covered in carbon scoring. "Okay. Okay. There’s.... think. My book said there is something to let the droid out, right?" She looked around at the ship. "Oh. I would have to open the cockpit." 

_**Kark! Stop stalling! What is wrong with you?!** _

"It’s jammed. Is there an override? Can’t you jump out or something?" She looked over at him, laughing a bit at the little arms that now appeared from his top. "Heh. An astromech with little hands! Cool! I like them!" 

_**You dumbass! If I could have left I already would have! Move the bits of twisted metal from around my legs.** _

"Legs? Something about legs." She moved to get closer to him, seeing the bent plating. "Oh. Parts of the ship got stuck in there with you." She began to throw metal bits out away, the flames getting hotter. "Now?" 

He tried again, and made it out, minus a leg that had busted off in the initial crash. Hera went to grab it from the socket, but backed away as the flames rushed over it. She heard the droid complaining. When she looked over, he was face down in the soil, unable to move. She heard her mother calling for her in a panic. 

_**Gonna leave me in the kriffing dirt?! Hello?! Damn.** _

"I’m here! Can you help me? I found this droid. It needs help." Tislera ran in the direction of her voice. She scooped up Hera and began running with her back towards the house."No! Mama! My droid! We can’t leave my droid! He is hurt!" 

"Hera, we can’t-" Hera started to cry and flail around in her mother’s arms. "I promised him I would help him! He is my friend!" Tislera grew more frustrated with the child before putting her right inside the door. "Stay. Right. Here." 

********

Hera smiled and hugged the droid now leaning against her bed frame. He complained a lot. About everything. 

She thought she might be like that, too, if she went through the same. "Okay, C1! I found this leg for you! It is perfect, isn’t it?" Upset chitters. She had gotten a lot better at understanding Binary over the past week. "You are too picky. The color does not matter. What matters is you can move around again after I fix it." 

_**You? You are going to do mechanical work?** _

"Who else would? You are my droid." She sat on the floor by him and dumped out a box of tools. They were all nearly too big for her to hold properly. She lined up the leg, looking between the new one and the one on the other side. 

_**I am nobody’s droid, kid. Nobody owns me.** _

She laughed and began installing the leg. "Duh. I don’t _own you_. You are your own being. I meant... you are like my family member. I take care of you and I will for as long as you allow me to." 

That was the first time he had gotten quiet in the week they’d known one another. She continued adjusting the leg, asking him to test the movements on occasion. The wiring was not as difficult as she thought it would be. His design was straightforward. 

"All done! Can you move fully now?" He plopped his full weight down on his legs and went slow at first. The kid had actually done it. He could move on his own again! He went in circles, laughing. "I am happy to see you happy, C1!" He stopped and looked at her.

_**Chopper. My name is Chopper.** _


End file.
